OSU football gets bowl ban, other penalties

By BTN.com staff, 5 years ago

OSU football gets bowl ban, other penalties

By BTN.com staff, 5 years ago

The NCAA has hit Ohio State with a one-year bowl ban and other penalties for a scandal that involved players taking cash and tattoos in exchange for jerseys, rings and other Buckeyes memorabilia, according to The Associated Press. The university had previously offered to vacate the 2010 season, return bowl money, go on two years of NCAA probation and use five fewer football scholarships over the next three years, but the NCAA on Tuesday banned the Buckeyes from playing in a bowl in Urban Meyer’s first year as head coach in 2012, further reduced the number of scholarships and tacked on a year of probation

Earlier Tuesday, Ohio State Athletic director Gene Smith confirmed to The Associated Press that the NCAA’s committee on infractions would hand down its final sanctions of the Ohio State athletic program at 3 p.m. ET, and the NCAA has planned to hold a teleconference at that time. Later, the Columbus Dispatch reported that the sanctions include that the school has been banned from postseason play after the 2012 season, according to multiple sources.

Five players were suspended last December for the first five games of the 2011 season for accepting cash and tattoos from the owner of a local tattoo parlor. Coach Jim Tressel was subsequently forced to resign for knowing about the violations but not reporting them to his superiors, and Urban Meyer was hired last month as the new head coach. We’ll have more on this as developments unfold.

Also, BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart will chime in later today on this story. Use the form below to drop him your football questions, especially anything on today’s developments. He writes a weekly mailbag on BTN.com.